Tag Archives: Catalyst

A shared purpose for engaging research

Trevor Collins • March 7, 2014

Dr Richard Holliman, OU Champion for Public Engagement with Research

Leadership; Mission; Communication
Champion’s blog; star date 2014.03.10 (in effect, an update on the first post on this blog, 'An open research university').

Nearly two years of the mission completed; 14 months of funding left. "Where do we boldly go from here?"

I was interviewed late last year by Lucian Hudson, the OU's Director of Communications, to explore this question. We also discussed progress with the core mission of the OU's Public Engagement with Research Catalyst.

You can see the results of our discussion in the video below. If you'd prefer to read the text of the interview, select transcript.

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Happy 3rd Birthday: RCUK Public Engagement with Research Concordat

Trevor Collins • November 29, 2013

Dr Richard Holliman, The Open University

Public engagement with research has come a long way since 2000. The pace of change has quickened significantly following the establishment of the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), the completion of the Beacons for Public Engagement programme, the embedding of research impact within Research Council grant applications and the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014), and the 2010 publication of the RCUK’s Concordat for Engaging the Public with Research.

Whilst each of these developments was significant, the publication of the RCUK Concordat three years ago was a watershed. In effect, its four principles were a mandate for embedding public engagement within the UK’s research culture. To celebrate the third anniversary of the Concordat's publication RCUK have published another booklet called Inspiration to Engage.
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My experience as a British Science Association Media Fellow • 1 Comment

Natalie Starkey • November 14, 2013

I was selected as one of the 2013 cohort of ten British Science Association Media Fellows. This is a scheme which places scientists with a media host for a month in the summer to learn about how journalists produce news reports of scientific research.

I was chosen by The Guardian so I packed myself off on the early commuter train to their head offices in London. Day one was a bit of a shock as it was such a change from my day job in the Planetary and Space Sciences laboratories at The Open University.
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TED-Ed: engaging with astrobiology research • 1 Comment

Louisa Preston • November 11, 2013

As well as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Physical Sciences at the Open University I have also been selected as a TED Fellow. Having been an avid watcher of the TED talks for many years I was inspired to apply to the Fellowship scheme so I could have a global stage on which to share the fantastic research being conducted in Astrobiology and to educate people worldwide on the subject of life in space.

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Blogging against the stream • 1 Comment

Meg Barker • November 5, 2013

The potentials and pitfalls of social networking and blogging about research

Over the last few years I've developed a number of blogs to accompany my various academic/research projects and have become a big advocate of using social media in conjunction with research. Along with wordpress - which is a really easy way for non-technical folk to put up a website or blog - I've also used prezi to ensure that my presentations are publicly available, youtube for filmed clips, facebook and twitter for discussion and sharing relevant links, and storify to record online conversations such as livetweeting from conferences and other events.

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How to lose publics and alienate people • 1 Comment

Emily Dawson • October 23, 2013

Social exclusion in public engagement with science

On Monday last week I gave a presentation as part of the ‘Engaging Research’ seminar series being run at the Open University (as you might have guessed since this is their blog!) The seminar series runs in conjunction with two RCUK-funded projects: 'An open research university'; and 'Engaging opportunities'.

My research interests are around who ‘counts’ as a public for so called ‘public’ engagement and how do engagement practices contribute to the exclusion of certain groups.

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An open research university

Richard Holliman • July 17, 2013

Dr Richard Holliman, The Open University’s Champion for Public Engagement with Research

Research with people at the centre

Champion’s blog; star date 2013.07.17. This is the blog of the OU's RCUK-funded Catalyst, 'An open research university'. But our mission isn’t to boldly go. Rather, our three-year mission is to embed the principles, values and reflective practices of public engagement within the research culture of Open University researchers. This requires all OU researchers to think more strategically about how we plan our research.

This requires us to think (yet again, I know) about culture change...

"If you're the University's Champion for Public Engagement with Research can you tell me how many people it takes to change a university's research culture?"

I guess the obvious answer is, "I don’t know at the moment, but I do know that those involved really have to want to change."

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